A STUDY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part Three)

By Bob Myhan

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ohn the Baptist promised that, though he had baptized in water, He who was coming after him would baptize in the Holy Spirit (Matt. 3:1-12; Mark 1:4-8; Luke 3:1-17; John 1:28-33). But what is Holy Spirit baptism? Who was promised this baptism -- all believers or just a few? Was it the salvation experience or a post-salvation experience, in the first century? Could it have been a pre-salvation experience? Is it to be experienced by believers in the twenty-first century? What does the Bible teach?

What Is Holy Spirit Baptism?

The literal act of baptism is an immersion or burial. Notice the following.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Rom. 6:3-4)

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Col. 2:11-12)

The word, “baptism,” may also be used in a figurative sense. Any overwhelming or overpowering experience may be called a baptism. Notice the following.

“But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50)

But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father." (Matt. 20:22-23)

The overwhelming experience of suffering is a baptism therein. Jesus knew that He would experience such on our behalf and came into the world for this purpose.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

Since one person cannot be buried or immersed in another literally, Holy Spirit baptism must have been a figurative term for an overwhelming experience involving the Holy Spirit.

Who Was Promised This Baptism?

Notice the initial promise, as made by John the Baptist.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matt. 3:7-12)

Baptism with the Holy Spirit and baptism with fire are not to be understood as one experience but as two (Matt. 3:10-12; Luke 3:9-17). To be baptized in fire is to be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20; 20:14, 15; 21:8). Thus, some of those John addressed would be baptized with the Holy Spirit and others would be baptized with fire.

[To be continued]

TEACHING CHILDREN TO BEHAVE IN WORSHIP

By Connie W. Adams

Teaching Them Not To Listen

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hen you take a large bag full of books, cars, dolls, stuffed animals and cookies, you are giving out the wrong signal.  I have seen children soon discard all of these and still act like brats and disrupt the whole service. When you put them on the floor to play under the benches, or allow them to run up and down the pew, or you run in and out with them to pacify them and then give them a cookie when you take them out, or even worse, allow them to make a garbage dump out of the pew and floor for several yards around you, you are not training your children to reverence God. You are teaching the child to hold both God and man in contempt. And by the way, if you could get a cookie for creating such a disturbance as to be taken out, would you not soon learn how to go about getting a cookie?  I have seen children old enough to go to school sit in services with comic books, or other secular books and I have seen some do school work while the gospel is being preached. I have seen children who are old enough to hold a song book and learn to sing, allowed to sit while the whole congregation is asked to stand, or worse yet, to make a bed and go to sleep rather than sitting up and being respectful. When parents allow this, they are teaching their children, all right; they are teaching them to dishonor God and show contempt for others. When they get older, they will move to the back rows, if you allow it, and there they will sleep, laugh with other unruly young people, pass pictures, write notes, flirt, and they will wander in and out to the water fountain and rest room.

What to Do With an Unruly Child

What do you do with a child, past the infant stage, who is cranky and unresponsive to warnings? I first heard this formula from GARY OGDEN of Plant City, Florida. He is exactly right and I pass it on to you for what it is worth. After trying briefly to get things under control (and I emphasize BRIEFLY - don't sit there so long you destroy the effect of the whole service), then here is what you do:

1. TAKE THEM OUT.

2. WEAR THEM OUT.

3. BRING THEM RIGHT BACK IN.

Well, you say, suppose that does not work? Then the next thing you do is:

1. TAKE THEM OUT.

2. WEAR THEM OUT.

3. BRING THEM BACK IN.

You think that won't work? Of course it works. My own children soon learned that it was not such fun to have to go out and that it was such more pleasant to stay inside and be quiet. I learned the same lesson as a small child. My parents before me learned the same lesson in the same way.

The trouble is that we have too many who are relying too heavily on the instruction of permissive psychologists as to how to train children. There are principles in the word of God that will help with this problem. Consider the following:

“Chasten thy son whle there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying." (Prov. 19:18)

"Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Prov. 22:6)

"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him". (Prov. 22:15)

"Withhold not correction from the child; for if thou beat him with the rod, he shall not die." (Prov. 23:13)

"The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." (Prov. 29:15)

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Heb. 12:11)

To His children in Laodicea, the Lord said, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten". (Rev.3:19)

Let no one suppose that this writer has advocated brutal treatment of children. We are all sensitive to the subject of child abuse these days, and well we should be.  But measured, reasonable correction which emphatically makes the point that some behavior is not acceptable and will not be tolerated is much needed these days. The Lord placed the responsibility for training in the hands of parents. One day he shall call us to account for how we managed the task. If you want your children to grow up to reverence God and obey His will, then you MUST START TODAY to teach them respect for worship of God. It will take time, effort and great patience, but it is worth all of that, and more. &